The Life And Death Of M.F.K. Fisher

Essay, Research Paper

The Life and Death of M.F.K. Fisher M.F.K. Fishers full name is Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, she was born in Albion, Michigan on July 3,1908 and died at the age of eighty – three suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Fisher was raised in Whittier California, by Episcopalian parents. Her father purchased the Daily new’s in Whittier in 1911 which in turn caused “Fisher to grow up surrounded by Journalism”.(Sietsema 3) It was said that Fisher began telling stories at the age of four. Fishers passion was writing about food, not so much giving recipes, but the “highly stylized and intensely detailed work”(Julian 5) gave her the renown tile as being America’s greatest food writer. “Food was Fishers metaphor, it was her connection between love and hunger.”(Julian 2) Fisher sold her first magazine article at the age of twenty- six and used her initials so her father would not know it was her work. Much of Fishers work was autobiographical, her stories were always evolved through her thought, wishes, dreams and mainly personal experience. It seems that Fisher had a wag in which she wrote that could captivate the reader and pull them right into the book. This is yet another reason why Fisher’s death is such a hard issue to deal with for many friends, family, and readers. Fisher was married three times and raised two daughters who she wrote for most of the time. One of Fisher’s greatest works was completed in 1942 and was called ” How to Cook a Wolf”. This piece of writing dealt with being a fisherman, something M.F.K. liked and everyone else thought is dirty, filthy and unrespectable. Fisher was not just a writer of books, she also “Produced essays, poetry and a screenplay, kept house, tended a vineyard in Switzerland, and completed her greatest personal task, translating a French gastronomical classic written by Brillat- Savarin called “La Physiologie du gout(Philosopher in the kitchen)”".(Julian 1) Fisher wrote roughly thirty books, her best works included “Serve it Forth”, “Consider the Oyster”, “How to Cook a Wolf”, “The Astronomical Me” and “An Alphabet for Gourmets”.(Sietsema 1) Fisher once said that ” writing is just like dope”, she needs to have her fix of it everyday.(Sietsema 3)

Living in France with her first husband, Fisher worked as a screen- writer for Paramount Studios, and during World War Two Fisher worked as a volunteer teacher for black children. An unidentified writer wrote that reading Fisher’s work is like “Tasting and then wanting to taste again”.(Shriver 1) Fisher gave meaning, depth and a texture to her writing. The way in which Fisher wrote “influence the way Americans think and feel about what they eat”.(Shriver 2) Throughout Fishers entire life she remained relatively low key. Fishers work’s were never introduced into universities because of this and therefor ” the world missed out on an incredibly sensuous writer.” (Julian 2) In the final years Fisher was alive, she was pretty much home bound and could not travel out of her house to visit the people dearest to her, so they came to her. Her friends and family were not the only people who visited her, she allowed people to come to her house and write biographical studies, and also to film her. The last year of her life Fisher was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received a Lifetime Achievement award for both the James Beard Foundation and the American Institute of Wine & Food in 1991. In conclusion I think that M.F.K Fisher was a renowned writer and a great person. I read that a close friend stated that she was a “mesmerizing, beautiful, very stylish siren of a woman, Fisher could captivate a roomful of guests as easily as she could a reader.”(Julian 3) From my studies I have to agree with this individual who spoke so highly of her. I believe that one think Fisher could do so greatly was tie food not only into culture but also into her personal life. As a finishing statement I would like to quote a statement made by Phyllis Richmond, a Washington Post Staff Writer, ” she knew mush more that how to write. She knew how to squeeze the most exquisite juices out of life.” (Richmond 1)